Clarke County High School – Photo Finish! – Video Feature

Today’s dedication of Clarke County High School is a proud and significant milestone for our community. The Clarke Daily News would like to share your your images and video of today’s dedication ceremony – or other aspects of the new building – for others in our community to share and enjoy.

Help us create a community photo album of today’s event by emailing your images or video links toClarkeDailyNews@Gmail.com . We will post your shots on this page.

Congratulations to the Clarke County School Board and especially to Dr. Michael Murphy, Tom Judge, Mike Legge, Robina Bouffault, Janet Alger, Barbara Lee, Jennifer Welliver and Emily Rhodes for their hard work in making this dream into a reality. Our community thanks you!

You could copy and paste just as many parades where they wore jeans and t-shirts. Are you willing to ouble down on the 2012 Apple Blossom?
My point is the school ceremony is a big deal for the county. Why not be in uniform. Did the speakers wear t-shirts and flip flops?
Where is the WOW factory with this band? They read music in parades, some in-step, some walk instead of marching, wear play clothes. It seems a bit lack-luster.

Does not a band reflect its director and his attitudes towards things? For the sake of argument, though, it was iffy as far as rain in the forecast, so perhaps he erred on the side of caution with respect to those expensive uniforms.

Saturday’s student-led dedication was an absolutely wonderful event! Just walking through the building and feeling the enthusiasm of everyone present was like opening night at the fair- thrilling! Thank you to all those who helped see this through, and to those who realize this is a new beginning for students, teachers, families and citizens who know pulling together is the key to success. Clarke is indeed a very special place, let’s keep the positive momentum going!

You all can pee and moan as much as you like about the uniforms. All I know this is a great school. Anyone not able to attend missed an opportunity to see a testament to what can happen when dedicated people get together for a common cause.
The outside of the new high school is nice but the inside is great. Money well spent, a big hand for all involved. Howard Shockey and Sons proved why they should be considered for every local public project.
Quality work, under budget you could not ask for more.
The School Board should pat themselves on the back. Job well done!

This is just a question – not a complaint. I was told that the auditorium would seat 740 but there are over 800 students currently enrolled in the current high school. Are my numbers correct and if so, why didn’t we build the auditorium to sit everyone?

There are currently 678 students in the high school this year, not “over 800”. Since 2007, the high school numbers have been steadily in decline. They were 775 in 2007. I believe that this decline is a mixture of both a poor economy and a cyclical downturn which Clarke has already experienced a number of years ago.

The overall auditorium space is designed for 800 seats, however the SB chose to have a portion of the seats retractable, which will provide an additional large space for other activities when needed. It gives much more flexibility to a space which has only a very limited number of days of use exclusively as an auditorium. The retractability mechanism for the retractable seats takes up a little more space than fixed seats would have, which is why the overall number of seats is slightly less than 800.

The room capacity also has to account for performers onstage. If you’ve been in the current J-WMS auditorium, it seats something like 480 people, but the posted sign reads 445.

To answer your question, though…a larger space wasn’t in the full set of plans RRB et al. bought 3 years ago, as the middle school in PA it is based off of didn’t have one that big. If and when the school is ever fully built out to its “1,000 students” capacity, the auditorium cannot be enlarged at all.

Still…next year will be the first time in almost 30 years that the high school will be able to have an assembly in its own auditorium that comfortably seats all students AND staff (678 students + 69 staff = 767 people).

And yet, if they had built an auditorium for 1000 students that would only be used for 1000 students once or twice a year you would have complained about the waste. It is a rare occasion to have all students in the auditorium at one time and the gym can handle that. Check with the school to see how often the entire school is in an assembly. Think about how many days the seats are empty. Talk about a waste. No school builds an auditorium to seat every student. But some just have to have something to complain about. And “Fly”, did you go on Saturday? Did it feel like a middle school? If you didn’t know about the plans ahead of time you would not have be able to tell the difference. Go in some of the other high schools in our area and you’ll appreciate what we now have. I loved it.

Yes, actually, I was there, and no, compared to what we currently have, it does not “feel” like a middle school. We finally have something that is on par with some of the other high schools near us, and for that I’m glad, since it’ll be my kids’ alma mater in a few years.

personally, I thought the building was long on the unecessary, and short on the necessary.At 26 classrooms, that puts 34 students per room. That is too large to be effective. They should have made the class wing longer at the expense of the “computer lab”, which will not be much of a benefit as the added classrooms would have been

The drainage pond is there for a purpose. State law mandates that there must be a pond to catch the runoff from the areas that are now paved or built upon. This includes all the Echols properties that were developed. The pond is made to allow the water to slowly drain into the soil. Call Christy Dunkle at the town office if you need more explanation.

Right now, due to the construction sediment, etc., it’s set up as a slow-release pond. Once the construction is finished, I believe it’ll be reconfigured to release the water more rapidly like the one across the street.

The new HS looks great. As someone else said we are now on par with other school districts our size.
Congratulations to the people who made this possible and to the kids who will get to attend the new school.

Perhaps the band was too tired of showing the uniforms off to drunks during the Apple Blossom Parade, as it had so been requested a multitude of times. Which is more important: showing of to a bunch of inebriates with beer in their hands, or members of the county? Apparently, the majority chose the former.

About the band: Instead of wearing uniforms to the school opening, we chose to wear our State Championships T-Shirt. Which we all got for winning 1st place in the USSBA AAAA Class. We chose to show off how proud we were for working hard all season and having it pay off instead of showing off how uncomfortable we were in our uniforms. We all understand that it’s something we have to do as a marching band, but before you bash us so much, go put one on, and carry a heavy instrument for an hour in the heat under the sun.
About the drainage pond: I like it!! I agree with previous comments, we should name it! It’s a nice little thing to have outside our school. So from the windows in the lunchroom you can see the mountains and a little pond with swans and geese, how pleasant!